During September 2020, Lamborghini managed to deliver a total of 738 cars to fortunate customers, never in the history of Automobili Lamborghini SpA since 1963 have they been able to deliver this amount of cars before, this also contributed to a total of 2,083 cars delivered for the third quarter of 2020 despite the world-wide pandemic that caused the factory in Sant’Agata to be shut down completely for a period of seven weeks.
After the factory reopened, they released the Huracan RWD Spyder, the stunning Sián Roadster (of which only 19 will be built) and the track-only SCV12 Essenza … and set a record of 10,000 Urus made, and more impressively, 10,000 Aventador made, a tremendo
Rumor has it you can’t order any Aventador S or S Roadster anymore, and production is set at building the S, S Roadster, SVJ and SVJ Roadster that are ordered already … so are they gearing up for a replacement for the Aventador? 2021 would make sense, as this would be exactly 10 years after the introduction of the Aventador as a successor to the Murciélago. But earlier rumors mentioned a delay for the Aventador successor by several years, some even mentioned 2023, and while we can be sure the Aventador replacement will be a hybrid model, it isn’t even sure the legendary V12 will remain.
Another press release to take into account was published on September 25, when it was officially confirmed the current Chairman and CEO of Automobili Lamborghini SpA, Stefano Domenicali would leave his position to become the new president and CEO of Formula 1, remember when Domenicali came to Audi in 2014 he was head of Ferrari’s F1 team from 2008 to 2014, in 2016 he would take over the reign at Lamborghini from Stephan Winkelmann.
A successor for Stefano Domenicali hasn’t been announced yet, but there might be other reasons that come into play here. Remember the news about Bugatti … the Volkswagen Audi Group might be selling Bugatti to Rimac, a step that would makes sense in a future of electric powered cars … and in the wake of that news there have been a lot of rumors going round about Lamborghini, Ducatti, and Bentley being for sale too.
Remember Automobili Lamborghini SpA has changed hands a few times in history, Ferruccio Lamborghini founded the company back in 1963, but in 1972 he sold the a controlling interest to Georges-Henri Rossetti, a Swiss industrialist, for a rumored $600,000. Ferruccio stated he would still remain at the factory to run it, but the oil-crisis of 1973 made things even worse for him and his passion dwindled further, soon after this he sold the remaining 49% of his shares to Rene Leimer, another Swiss resident.
Automobili Lamborghini SpA was officially declared bankrupt by the Italian court in 1978, on February 28th, 1980 the receiver Giorgio Mirone and the commissioner Artese decided to wind up the factory, fortunately the Swiss based Mimran brothers were able to save the factory, but they were only allowed to manage the factory, it would be 1984 when Patrick Mimran was allowed to purchase Lamborghini for about 3 million US dollars.
The Nuova Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini SpA was making money again, but suddenly on April 23rd 1987 Lee Iacocca, president of Crysler Corporation, announced he bought the Sant’Agata company from Patrick Mimran for $25,000,000. Chrysler changed the name back to Automobili Lamborghini SpA and injected $50,000,000 to modernize the factory.
Chrysler decided to sell Automobili Lamborghini SpA on January 21st 1994 for a rumored amount of 35,000,000,000 Lire (about $40,000,000) to a fairly unknown group of three Far-Eastern companies, but towards the end of 1997 Di Capua started negotiations with Audi AG for the use of their 4.2-Litre V-8 engine together with the Audi A8 Quattro four-wheel drive to be used in the new ‘Baby Lambo’ since developing an all-new V-10 engine seemed impossible at the time.
This would lead to Audi AG completely buying the factory, on July 27th 1998 Audi AG became the single owner of all Automobili Lamborghini SpA shares, the necessary paperwork was finalized on August 4, ownership of this amazing Italian car builder was once again changed, this time for $110,000,000 … this would eventually lead to the Lamborghini Gallardo and the Audi R8.
So will Automobili Lamborghini SpA change hands again in the near future? Lamborghini cars are built for a niche market, and while VW is looking at full electric cars in the future, that might not be an option for many years to come at Sant’Agata … so does this mean Lamborghini no longer fits in the long term plans for the VAG group?
